Never As It Seems

It's Back

"I swear to everything in which I believe," said Annmarie, rubbing her eyes vigorously, "if I have to go through that horrible experience one more time, I am going to an optometrist and I am going to personally force them to rip out -" 

"Annmarie," said Flames, "please be quiet, uncover your eyes, and look at what's around you." 

She slowly brought down her hands and stared in awe out the window. A beam of sunlight fell down on her already brightened expression, but she ignored it as she gazed with fascination at everything.

"What is this?" 

"This, my friend," said Adam, "is Fuzzonia as it's supposed to be." 

"What, you mean it's supposed to be this gorgeous?" she said. She leaned forward to get a better view of the place. Her eyes widened even more. "This is amazing. I cannot imagine the Fuzzy Guys I know keeping a place like this so pristine." 

"Yeah, and they didn't," said Rick. "Or have you already forgotten what it looked like when I first brought you and Flames here?" 

"Shut up," said Annmarie. "I just...wow." 

"See, usually the Fuzzy Guys aren't that bad," said Adam. Flames gave him a weird look and he added, "Not most of them, obviously. A lot of them are pretty nice. You remember that one we met somewhere around this spot that first time?" 

"No," said Flames. 

"Well, it was really nice. It treated us with respect. And a lot of them are like that. So that's why this place looks so pretty, because they take care of it. However, when you through the bad Fuzzy Guys into the equation, you get the wasteland that you described." He shuddered. "Can't imagine it. How bad was it, honestly?" 

"On a scale of one to ten, I would say an eighteen," said Rick. 

"Yikes. Well, it's over now." 

"It better be. We should check to make sure." 

"What, you mean this could all be fake?" said Flames.  

"You never know, dude." 

They got out of the car. Rick stretched and Annmarie stared wildly around at everything. 

"I would believe it if this were fake," she said. 

"No, you wouldn't," said Adam. "I think it would be a bit more obvious." 

"How do we figure that out, anyway?" said Flames. "Just go up to random people and say, hey, there used to be a war here and now we're not sure if there is or not so we want you to confirm if all is well? That's so dumb." 

- 

"Excuse me, ma'am, but I have a question." 

A dark-haired, medium dark-skinned lady who was sitting on a park bench reading a book glanced up as Flames approached her. She looked at him nervously and smiled. 

"Yes?" 

"This is going to sound really stupid, but my friends and I -" He indicated the other three, who were also going around and talking to people. "We've been out of town for a while, and we've heard a lot of rumors about this place. You've lived here for a while, right?" 

She shrugged. "I came over here when everyone else did. So what is it you're dying to ask me, now? Just spit it out." 

"Okay." He took a deep breath and she peered at him expectantly. "Has there been any sort of war going on in the past week? Fuzzy Guys taking over, locking people up, rebellion groups, lots of terror and chaos? Anything like that?"